we’re two days away from april and today is the nicest yet this year… it’s 21C right now, gorgeous (that’s 70F). and they are of course forecasting snow for tomorrow, so everyone is out enjoying today while they can.
I wore sandals and a tank top for the first time this year, and it was fantastic. Of course I had to walk to the nearest Sev and get a turtles icecream bar in celebration of spring.
There was a proliferation of children all over the place, rollerblading, playing basketball, and playing with remote control monster trucks. There were old couples sitting on benches, midriff-baring 14 year olds with rollerblades and cell phones, and college students sitting outside doing homework.
There were also two cats very much in heat–but seemingly unwilling to do anything about it. Instead they just sat and meowed at each other (maybe they’re both female… ).
Oh, I’m just waiting for our first day like that! It hasn’t been much warmer than 50 F here yet, but the snow’s almost gone, the days are getting longer and the daylight itself is noticeably brighter. My Dad has tapped a couple of his maple trees, but the sap is only a trickle as yet. I’m anxious for warmer days so I can get out on the local walking trail, and photograph Spring unfolding.
I nearly missed this pretty poem, since my network had a mysterious problem for a while.
May I sing this to my baby with a random melody?
P.S.
because lentils(of which lekithites is made) is not well known in Korea, I had to browse the web for a while to see what it looks like. And now I see it is what lens is named after. I looked up to see if it has a Korean name. And it had. Kachikong or Jebikong was it. (kong is the word for bean, Kachi is magpie, and Jebi is swallow, and this lentils bread appears in a song about swallow in Greek – what a coincidence!, or is it not ?)
You may if you wish, though if you look at the PDF you’ll see that the song gets a bit aggressive after the “happy happy spring spring!” part.
because lentils(of which lekithites is made) is not well known in Korea, I had to browse the web for a while to see what it looks like. And now I see it is what lens is named after. I looked up to see if it has a Korean name. And it had. Kachikong or Jebikong was it. (kong is the word for bean, Kachi is magpie, and Jebi is swallow, and this lentils bread appears in a song about swallow in Greek – what a coincidence!, or is it not ?)
That is very interesting! Several of the food words in the poem don’t occur very often at all, so I’m suspicious of all the translations, especially the “fruit cake,” a food that has very ominous - or at least annoying - associations in the U.S.
We have such kind of aggresiveness in a sand song of children.
you put your hand on a sand and put a couple of handful of sand on your hand and tab it softly to harden while singing:
Dukobadukoba (toad, oh toad)
honjib jul_ke_ saejib da_o_(I’ll give you an old house, give me a new house) – (bold face: high tone, italic: lowered tone)
And draw your hand out slowly to get a tiny den of sand.
The song sounds quite aggresive, but the toad here whose home is taken away is nothing but your own hand.